


Christmas

by coeurastronaute



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Christmas!, F/F, and they are gay!, it's Christmas!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-20 05:52:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13140426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coeurastronaute/pseuds/coeurastronaute
Summary: Supercorp xmas prompts





	1. Midvale

**Author's Note:**

> So I only got like 2 prompts for Supercorp christmas, but here ya go!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I’m not sure if you are taking Christmas prompts for Supercorp as well, but in case you are, could you write a story with Lena going to Midvale with Kara for the holidays for the first time?

The closer that the plane got to landing, the deeper Lena took a breath. It wasn’t the worst way to spend the holidays, and her girlfriend was practically vibrating with excitement. Kara spent an entire week fine tuning a list of things to do back in her hometown, and Lena was excited because when her girlfriend was excited, it was as contagious as the plague, or something more fun, like flesh eating bacteria.

That didn’t stop her nerves though. She was an adult woman who owned her own business and home, who regularly went to the dentist, who had a 401k and did things like brunch and tip her mailman during the holidays. Lena Luthor was an upstanding citizen who paid her taxes and volunteered and gave money to charity. She employed a large portion of people and she was madly in love with her girlfriend. She was a catch.

And yet she’d never met a parent. Not once. Never wanted to, nor had the opportunity to be introduced as a girlfriend to significant family members. And as she sat on the plane, she really wasn’t dreading it as much as she thought. Instead of morbid fear, a nervousness over the future and what this meant ensued.

“You’re nervous,” Kara stated, feeling it radiate off of her normally confident girlfriend.

Even when she wasn’t, Lena knew how to fake it. Kara once watched her charm her way out of a speeding ticket, which was ridiculous, to say the least, but Lena Luthor was capable of such things.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“A little,” she shrugged, finding that firmness and putting on that mask.

“My mom is going to love you. And I’m going to show you all of my favorite things,” Kara promised, kissing Lena’s hair as she leaned against her shoulder. “Look at this list.”

Proudly, the crumpled and well-creased paper emerged from its spot as a bookmark, never far away from Kara for the past few weeks as she made her list of things to do back home. It began the moment she booked the tickets, and it just grew until it was onto the second page, though Lena was never allowed to fully read it. It was all to be a surprise.

“Your sister doesn’t like me already,” Lena remembered, pulling them from the moment of peace and calmness.

“She likes you,” Kara swallowed and lied through her teeth. “It doesn’t matter. Everything is going to be great.”

“If you say so.”

“I do,” she smiled and kissed her once more.

* * *

If Lena was nervous, then Kara was ecstatic. Both vibrated at similar frequencies with their opposite feelings as they moved through the airport. While Kara tried to urge them quickly onward so that her adoptive mother could pick them up, she was tugged back at the absolutely glacial pace at which her girlfriend dragged her feet.

“I’m excited,” Kara repeated herself.

“I am too,” Lena promised, almost meaning it. “For a proper Danver’s Christmas.”

It was the most truth that she could manage. In truth, Lena really didn’t know what to expect, as the holidays weren’t a thing in her home. They must have been at one point, but she couldn’t recall one Christmas that she asked Santa for something. Instead, she just had time off of school and was exceedingly lonely. The stories that Kara told her were pure legend and myth and everything that movies were made of, and for that reason, so very difficult to understand.

“Hi, honey,” a tall, beautiful blonde woman greeted them as they made their way toward the line of waiting cars. “Oh, look at you. You’re gorgeous. Come here.”

She inhaled Kara in a huge hug, squeezing and rocking them as she smiled and closed her eyes with the force of her love for her adopted daughter. If one were to squint and not know their history, they could imagine that they were related by blood. Long faces and slender bodies, they were tall and blonde and happy; the complete opposite of the Luthor.

“You must be Lena,” she turned her arms onto the shy addition to the reunion. “I’m so glad you could make it. Kara talks about you constantly.”

“She’s not really a hug–” Kara’s words were cut off when Eliza’s arms went around Lena’s stiff shoulders, thawing her slowly.

“You are just beautiful. Kara wasn’t wrong about that,” the mother smiled and held Lena’s shoulders, ignoring her daughter’s interruption. “Was it a good flight?”

“It was good,” Lena nodded, still smothered in a different way than she was accustomed. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“I’m so glad you are both here.”

Just like that, Lena was sucked up into it. She couldn’t escape her weird feelings about the motherly figure who hugged her daughter tight, glad that she’d returned. She couldn’t help but blush when she learned how much Kara talked about her; enough so that Eliza knew almost as much about her as Kara did.

It was all well worth it when they went to lunch at Kara’s favorite place. Or at least one of Kara’s favorites. To see her overjoyed and talking quickly. She had this stupid way of making people happy and excited to exist when maybe they were on the fence about it at best. And she gushed. Kara gushed about Lena to her mom right in front of her, which was magic and very new because as much as Lena knew that Kara loved her, she wasn’t quite certain why. But she heard some of the reasons in the pride in her voice.

The sun beat down on the coastal town so that Christmas was a much different temperature. Lena shed her coat and basked in it as they drove toward the neighborhood on the hills above the ocean. There were lights and decorations, and Lena found the neighborhood to be idyllic and picturesque and festive despite the weather.

“You grew up here?”

“Yeah,” Kara grinned as she squinted at the house as they climbed out of the car.

It was everything Lena imagined that normal people without alcoholic fathers and abusive step-mothers grew up in. There was a tree in the yard and shutters on the windows and a porch with comfortable chairs that looked good for chatting and sipping coffee. It looked like the home that built someone like Kara.

“Wait for it.”

“For wha–”

The front door swung open, and right there, with the afternoon just starting to simmer, a giant white dog came bounding out and onto the lawn, tackling Kara in an instant, barely able to decide where on her face to lick, instead just wagging its whole body.

“Hi, buddy,” Kara giggled and tried to hold him back as he licked at her face. “Lena, this is Krypto.”

“Oh… my… he’s a big guy.”

“Yeah, he’s my big, strong boy,” she laughed and rubbed his chest and tried to stand up. “He’s the best dog in the whole galaxy.”

“Hello there,” Lena furrowed and made a face as she held her hand out. A loud back emerged and she retracted quickly, though he lurched forward to lick her, tail wagging and eager to be friends.

“He likes you.”

“He’s so… big.”

“He’s from home,” Kara explained. “He gets a little excited.”

“He broke through the garage door his first week here,” Eliza explained, shaking her head as she grabbed their bag and lugged it toward the house. “Just like Kara.”

“He’s nice. Give him your hand,” Kara ignored her mother but earned a skeptical look from her girlfriend. “Lena, trust me.”

The pictures that Kara had on her phone of the dog were awfully misleading as to its size. Or perhaps it was just being in person with it, in the picturesque little house at the end of the cul-de-sac, with Kara holding him tightly around the neck, that Lena realized what a behemoth of a beast Krypto truly was.

She looked at her girlfriend and took a deep breath.

“Hi big dog thing,” Lena swallowed.

Tentatively he sniffed before licking her hand, though it did nothing to make her relax.

“He’s soft, huh?”

“Yeah. And has big teeth.”

“Yes he does,” Kara cooed, rubbing the dog’s ears. “My two favorite people are at my home. This is going to be great.”

“Sure is,” Lena agreed, patting the dog’s head awkwardly as he returned to nudging Kara’s hip for more love.

If Lena wasn’t a rational, logical, normal person, she might have imagine he gave her a look of jealous ownership over the blonde. Instead, she shook her head and followed Kara into the house.

* * *

The room at the top of the stairs was no where close to as big as Lena’s bedroom, of course, not many bedrooms were. Lena got an entire wing, isolated and cut off from the rest of a family. She didn’t understand how bedrooms could be so close together, or how things could feel so warm and homey.

On one side of the room, punk band posters covered the walls. There were stickers and fairy lights and an old, worn purple comforter on it. It was a far cry from the agent that worked at the DEO and kept everything under control. It was all angst and teenage rage.

But Kara’s side, that was very much like the girl she knew and loved. It was cozy. Kara had a knack for being cozy. A comfortable, soft sunflower quilt covered the bed. There were bits of art hanging up on the wall by the bed. A copy of Starry Night hung there. A few little books sat on the nightstand. There was a stark distinct difference between the two sisters, and Lena smiled to herself at it.

“That side’s mine,” Kara nudged her chin toward the cozy side with the warm looking quilt. “Alex and Maggie dibbed the guest room, so we’re in here.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever slept on a twin-sized bed.”

“I love your ‘I’m-very-rich’ stories. Means I get to teach you how to be human.”

“How did you sleep on these?” Lena said as she surveyed it. “You turn into a starfish when you sleep.”

“Just wait until we try to squeeze together,” she laughed and flopped on the bed, tugging Lena with her a second later. “I’m going to get you slumming it, Luthor.”

She laughed and settled beside her girlfriend, tucked against the wall and Kara’s side. Lena kissed her jaw and tossed her leg over Kara’s hip.

“I’m in your childhood bed.”

“You are. I’m not allowed to have anyone in my bed. At least I think so. Never had that option as a teenager, but I bet it’d be discouraged.”

“I’m telling your mom,” Lena teased.

“Please don’t.”

They were quiet as they laid there in the old childhood room. Kara went over her list of what they were going to do, and how excited she was to give Lena a family and all of the same good memories she had. That was always the goal, and she did it in tiny ways, but Kara was on track to replace every bad memory with something better. It was a daunting list, but it was already working. There were a lot less sad stories. There were a lot less moments of sadness period.

Lena adjusted her leg and tightened her grasp on Kara’s ribs, hiding away in her shoulder and closing her eyes happily. She almost considered buying a twin-sized bed just because they normally slept about this close anyway, but there was no possible way she would ever do something like that. She was a Luthor, afterall.

Downstairs, they heard Alex and Maggie arrive at some point, their little semi-nap interrupted by the idea of real life. They heard the dog bark and they heard the sound of dinner being made, but neither wanted to move. It wasn’t on Kara’s list, but lounging in her favorite bed with her favorite person should have been at the top.

“I like your room,” Lena whispered. “But I think we should head downstairs.”

“We should. Part one of Midvale Christmas.”

The light slowly dimmed outside as the evening snuck in to interrupt. The heat of the day relaxed somewhat in the winter that could only be described as an East Coast fall at best.

“Thanks for inviting me.”

“Thanks for coming.”

* * *

Dinner didn’t want to end. The night descended outside and the day passed, but still the table laughed and drank. The house was decorated with lights and garlands, with candles and nutcrackers, all mingling with pictures and diplomas. It might have been one of the smallest homes she’d ever spent time in, but there was something about family there that she’d never felt before. It felt like home and it’d only been a few hours.

“Can I help clean up?” Lena offered as Eliza finally stood.

“I think Kara has too much planned. But thank you.”

“You have something planned for tonight?”

“I do,” she nodded proudly. “Put on some shoes on. I’ll help clean quickly–”

“No, no, that’s okay,” Alex stopped her from running around. “Last time you helped quickly you broke the dishwasher. We’ve got it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Go have fun, Little Danvers,” Maggie promised.

Driven forward by Kara’s excitement, Lena followed along through the backyard and onto the sand of the beach while the rest of the house was grateful to get rid of the energetic tornado. Without the sun, the night grew chilly, though it still didn’t have that malignant frost of a true winter night. Instead, for December, the night on the beach was simply chilly.

“Do I get to see this famous list, or are you just going to drag me all over the place all week?” Lena asked as the trudged away from the neighborhood.

“Drag you all over the place, definitely.”

Lena rolled her eyes and hopped up onto Kara’s back as it was offered, squeezing her neck and kissing her ear as she was carried toward the surprise. Krypto followed along eagerly, prancing along before racing ahead.

“I like your house.”

“It’s nice, huh?”

The weight on her back was familiar and nice and warm. Like nothing at all, Kara held onto Lena’s thighs and walked them toward the first item on her list. It was the first thing she thought of when her mother called and invited them out, making sure they would make it with her sister.

“Your mom is very nice too,” Lena hummed, her chin on her arm and cheek pressed against Kara’s hair. “The dog isn’t so bad either.”

“I’d say we could bring him home, but I know that you’d lose it.”

“He could live at your place.”

“But you have a balcony.”

“He stays.”

“Fine,” Kara chuckled as she jumped a dozen feet in the air and landed them atop the lifeguard stand on the desolate beach. “This is spot number one.”

“I never thought I’d be on a beach for Christmas,” Lena sighed as she slid off of her hero’s back. “What is this?”

“This, my dear, is my favorite place. I spent hours and junk hear when I was a kid looking at the stars and very alone.”

“You were alone?”

“I was very lonely and sad,” she nodded, unfolding the blanket in her arms. “But I felt better when I looked at the stars. It reminded me of home.”

“Now you can be alone with me,” Lena decided as Kara’s tone drifted toward melancholic.

Lena wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and hugged her tightly atop the tower there with the waves as a beat in the background.

The blanket was spread and the pair took a seat, though this time they gave up on the stars and instead watched the holiday lights on the buildings along the coast. Lena pressed into her space heater and couldn’t help but giggle and laugh and listen and learn exactly why Kara loved that spot.

* * *

There was something oddly disorienting about waking up in her twin-sized bed, but at the same time, there was something familiar and tinged with this feeling of home and safety. The moment was warm and Kara stretched out with the sun slipping through the blinds and along her shoulders and back.

It took a few seconds of waking from the best sleep she’d had in months for Kara to realize that she was alone. She knew that she didn’t go to bed alone. In fact, she went to bed with a beautiful girl curled up into her side and lips lingering on her skin after a quiet, very quiet moment round of festive celebrating. Because no matter the place, Lena Luthor was good at drinking wine and getting handsy, and Kara liked those facts and that her family celebrations would involve a lot more bottles.

But she woke up alone in her bed, with her sister’s untouched and no sight of her girlfriend. She closed her eyes and listened and breathed in the smell of breakfast being made and Lena helping.

With a grin, Kara dug her head into her pillow and worked hard to catalogue everything happening at that very instant.

“Have you considered the degree to which you’re attacking the joint arms?” Lena asked, furrowing as she leaned over the schematic fanned out on the kitchen table. “Hey, babe,” she murmured as she sipped her coffee without looking up, earning a kiss on her temple.

“You were up early.”

“Eliza was showing me some of her schematics for a transponder. And you were exhausted.”

“Morning,” Kara took a kiss from her mother and took a cup of juice and popped a grape from the spread. “Where’s Maggie and Alex?”

“Out for a run.”

“You know, the wiring could be shorter and less prone to misfiring if you just move the battery,” Lena decided as she nodded to herself.

“Move it…” Eliza nodded as well as she considered it and moved around the table. “I could move it.”

“And it would appear that I’ve lost my girlfriend for the day.”

“What?” Lena caught herself and looked up finally, smiling shyly at Kara. “Sorry what were you saying?”

“Do you want to go to work with Eliza?”

“No, no, we have your list.”

“It’ll keep for a few hours.”

“Will it?” Lena asked, torn between wanting desperately to play with new gadgets and also being a good girlfriend.

“It will,” Kara promised, earning a squeal and huge hug.

* * *

There was a plan. There was rhyme and reason that came with all of it. Kara took Lena to her favorite restaurant and shared all of her favorite foods, even surprising Lena with a few of her own. They went out for drinks with friends from high school, and Lena got to see a nerdier, giggly hero emerge. They went to the aquarium and Kara told her girlfriend about her home, her family, both of them, both of her parents, both of her beliefs. They spent all day underwater.

By Christmas Eve, Lena was comfortable, or at least as comfortable as an orphan with a terrible childhood could be in a family that wore matching pj’s and even got her a pair. Even though it was the night before Christmas, the temperature outside was warm enough to negate the need for warm clothes, but that didn’t stop them. And thus, Lena Luthor, heir to the mass fortune and infamous name and legacy, found herself in flannel reindeer pj’s. She traced Kara’s hair as she rested in her lap while Alex and Maggie laughed on the other side of the room, and Eliza brought in more cookies.

“I still can’t believe you watch all of them in one day.”

“We have to get all of the Christmas movies in before we can’t,” Alex explained. “We had to figure out how to educate your girlfriend, and so we picked the best examples we could and answered about a thousand questions.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen half of them.”

“See, it’s important to educate the aliens,” Maggie teased, earning a chuckle from Kara. “Let me guess, The Grinch is your favorite.”

“We haven’t watched my favorite Christmas movie,” Lena disagreed.

“What is it?”

“Die Hard.”

The room was quiet but it was Alex that broke first, her laugh filling up the room until her wife joined her, followed quickly by Eliza and then finally Kara.

“That’s not a Christmas movie,” Kara chuckled.

“I beg to differ. Just because it doesn’t have a weird creature or a sing-along track doesn’t mean it doesn’t show all of the virtues of a good Christmas movie.”

“Is that really the movie you watch for the holidays?” Eliza asked, furrowing slightly.

“When we were kids, Lex and I would play John McClane. It was a pretty good part of the season for us. Well, it was. At least for me.”

Lena wished she wasn’t so surprised when the next movie they watched was Die Hard. She blushed slightly and slithered deeper into the couch as she felt Kara hug her leg. It was a new kind of memory, and it was part of her that became part of their traditions, and that was everything nice.

Kara kissed her knee at one point and nuzzled deeper before letting out a contented sigh.

* * *

There existed only one item left on the list as Christmas morning rolled around. Kara worked hard to cross off every item and spend as much time showing Lena everything that she had to offer to make Christmas a new favorite time of the year for the pessimistic Luthor.

But the final item, that was enough to make her nervous as all get out. And she stared at her tattered list as Lena slept half atop her in the morning light and kissed her head before sighing and feeling her own heart jump at the thought of completing it.

Time was going to push her onward though.

“Merry Christmas,” Lena hummed as she dug her nose into Kara’s shoulder.

A few days on the twin bed, and she was appreciating her king back home a lot more, though waking up this close was kind of nice and different.

“Merry Christmas,” Kara whispered, closing her eyes.

“Merry Christmas!” Alex yelled from just outside the door. “Let’s go!”

The two in the bed just growled and groaned and stretched and collided together in the tiny space of the bed beneath the shared blankets and pillows. Both gave up and tugged on their matching pj’s that were an early gift before heading downstairs.

Gifts spilled out from beneath the tree while the rest of the living room was filled with Eliza and Maggie and Alex standing there.

“I’ll get coffee, go take a seat. Everyone sit,” Kara ordered, exchanging a pointed look with her sister. Oblivious to it all, Lena took a seat eagerly.

Time was coming indeed for the last item on her list, and Kara let out a big breath as she disappeared into the kitchen.

* * *

Wrapping paper and bows and discarded boxes accumulated as the music played in the background. Lena even got a stocking, which was important. She got gifts from everyone else, and she got lots of laughs and jokes from everyone around the tree as the morning grew deeper.

“I love it, thank you,” Maggie grinned and kissed her wife.

“I think this means Christmas is over,” Lena sighed.

“I don’t know,” Kara shook her head and started to dig in a stocking. “I think there’s one more gift left.”

“Yeah, check the tree, Lena,” Eliza smiled, sitting on the edge of her seat.

“Do you hide them in there as well?” she asked, stretching and searching. “I don’t see anything else. And I think everyone opened the ones I got.”

By the time Lena turned around, Kara was on her knee.

“So there’s one more item on my list,” she smiled and showed it to her girlfriend finally. “And it’s to ask you to marry me, and give me the happiest girl in the world.”

“What… what?” Lena shook her head and looked at everyone else. “What are you doing?”

“Lena Luthor, I’m in love with you. I want every Christmas with you. I want everything with you.”

“Kara– this–”

“What do you say?”

“Of course!” she yelped before tackling her girlfriend into the pile of wrapping paper.


	2. Hufflepuff

The snow was a thick blanket atop every inch of the campus. The grounds were ancient and freezing if not for the roaring fires everywhere they could be lit. For a giant castle, the scenery was surprisingly perfect for the season. But for a giant castle, it was also freezing almost everywhere you turned. While the rolling hills were pure white, and the silhouettes of trees were knotty hands scratching at the cloud-grey sky, the lake sloshed around some ice but still lapped at the shore, curing its ache.

As the year started to end, the grounds at Hogwarts cleared out. It grew eerily quiet with the distinct lack of people for the holiday. Lena settled in her common room in front of the large fireplace, a giant book on astronomy open on her lap and a plate of her favorite sweets lounging on the arm of the couch.

It didn’t take much for the administration to agree to let Lena stay. There wasn’t anywhere to go, and her inheritance wouldn’t be available until after she graduated. Instead, Lena Luthor would remain on campus grounds like a ward of the state. Due to the limited staff, she more than likely wouldn’t see another living creature, and she was pretty okay with that after the introduction back to her old classmates after what her father did.

There was already a list of things Lena hoped to do since she would have the whole place to herself for a while. A stack of books sat beside her bed, waiting to be shortened. She was going to use the Astronomy tower unimpeded by anyone else rushing her along. She was going to give herself some un-supervised time on her broom to see if she could get over her initial dislike of it. She was going to create a whole map of the grounds, every nook and cranny. It’d be the first of its kind, and she was eager to do it.

But, as usual, Lena Luthor didn’t take into account Kara.

She hadn’t the first time she met her, nor the day she returned back to Hogwarts, nor the afternoon she kissed her. In all actuality, Lena didn’t even realize how often she didn’t remember that her maybe girlfriend was a force to be reckoned with, and was even more stubborn than herself, which was saying a lot.

“Wha– What are you doing?”

“I’m reading,” Lena muttered without even looking up from her book.

She didn’t have to move to know that the tall chaser was leaning against the doorway, crossing her arms in front of her chest, while the rest of her relaxed. Lena knew she’d be in her muggle clothes, in those jeans and that comfy, thick sweater that covered her hands and looked nice against her blonde waves.

Lena just knew that Kara existed like that. She could sense it.

“No, I see that,” Kara furrowed. “But why aren’t you ready to go?”

“Um… because I’m not going anywhere,” she snorted and turned the page.

“You’re coming home with me. I thought we’d already been through this.”

“Do you mean when you told me what I should be doing for Christmas break? Or when you told me to think about it, but still gave me that damned pout that you know is the worst kind of effective on me?” Lena listed calmly tucking a marker into her book before she shut it. “Or when I told you thank you, but I’d rather be left alone?”

“Yeah, all of those times,” she nodded. “What are you going to do, sit around all break and mope?”

“I have plans.”

“Lena, this is insane. I thought you were just being dramatic.”

“I say what I mean and I mean what I say.”

Only when Lena looked up at finally met Kara’s eyes did she see how angry she’d grown at how ridiculous it all must sound. She balled up her fists and her face contorted slightly from the ease of happiness that always seemed so natural. The red of her anger grew up her neck and to her cheeks.

“You want to stay here, alone, in an empty school with no one but ghosts to keep you company instead of coming to your girlfriend’s home, that is warm and cozy and full of people and food and holiday cheer?”

There was hurt there, beneath the controlled anger. Lena heard it and she felt it more than normal.

“Your offer was sweet, but I don’t want to make your holiday weird. I know what my broth–”

“No one cares.”

“I care,” she interjected before the familiar talk of support.

If one thing was certain, it was that Kara was Lena’s number one fan and biggest supporter. She wouldn’t take any sense of doubt from Lena about her place in the world and what she was rightfully entitled to at the very least.

“I invited you because I want you around. I don’t want you to be miserable and alone. I wanted to spend time with you because you’re my– you’re my– you’re my girlfriend, and more than that, I care about you, and I want you to be happy.”

Kara sputtered her words and turned slightly shy at the honest in them. She scratched the back of her neck and looked at Lena for just a quick seconds before retreating to the ground as she scratched a little higher.

It was a decision that Lena thought she’d already made. She thought she didn’t have to do it formally because she thought Kara left already and she thought that the offer was just out of kindness. And it was, but now, she learned it was also something more.

Lena looked at her book and back at her newly confirmed girlfriend and her heartbeat a little quicker and a little warmer at the news.

“I planned stuff for us to do,” Kara shrugged. “But if you want to stay, you can. Not that you need my permission, I’m just saying. I get it. It’s stupid, but I do.”

“It’s not stupid.”

“It’s stupid to lock yourself away and make me waste my time off worrying about you.”

“I don’t–”

“Nothing matters. They’ll love you,” she promised quickly, capitalizing on indecision while she could.

On the couch, Lena shifted her legs before looking at her book and then to her list of all the things she planned on doing before looking back at Kara and nodding to herself.

“It’ll take me about five minutes to pack.”

* * *

The Danver’s home was everything Lena thought it would be. Gone was the frigid and exacting cold of the expansive grounds at school, and in the place of the monolithic structures and impersonal facade was a quaint three story row house in the heart of London.

Throughout the block, lights and decorations illuminated the other yards, so that the entire street glowed. Sidewalks were cleared, but snow stacked on railings and roofs. It wasn’t cramped, but it was very close. Everything was kind of stacked up together, and the windows were golden and orange and filled with frost and people smiling.

Lena didn’t want to admit that it was a much better way to spend the holiday that what she had planned alone at school.

“This is going to be great,” Kara cheered.

“I’ve never played something like this before,” Lena fret as she took the seat on the floor beside her girlfriend.

The family crowded around the coffee table that was now holding only the board game. Each set it up in their own way, and Lena watched with rapt attention. Much of her visit to the muggle world included simple amazements at the most basic things, much to Kara’s enjoyment.

But Lena never had a chance to experience the muggle world. She was forbidden, and no one spoke as to why, but it was at least a thought once for everyone in attendance.

There were no enchantments on the house. Lena expected it to be different when she walked inside, but there was no charm making it larger. It was cozy and full of people. Kara’s aunt and uncle, who raised her from the age of eight, seemed to have a knack for adopting entire hoards of lost ones.

While the parents sat on the couch, Alex and her girlfriend shared a chair. Kara’s friends were on the other side, James and Winn taking a corner. The house was bursting at the seams with relatives that came to visit during the week, while the inhabitants filled it completely.

“I think you’re going to be very good at it,” Eliza smiled graciously as she placed little characters at the square marked ‘go.’

For some reason, it gave Lena a bit of courage. She wasn’t sure why, but the matron of the family had this way about her, of supporting and instilling a sense of security over whoever entered her home.

“That’s why you’re on my team,” Kara nodded. “I didn’t want to go against you.”

Her smile was mischievous and kind and warm and Lena sighed and sank deeper into her sweater that was a new addition to her wardrobe courtesy of the pretty girl beside her. It eclipsed her frame, but it made her happy.

A few hours and lots of yelling and laughing later, Lena did, in fact, win her first ever game of Monopoly, much to everyone’s amusement. Kara beamed and someone took a picture of them, only it wouldn’t move. It was stuck in that one instant forever– with the plump Christmas tree shining and glittering with its red and green bulbs and handmade decorations in the background.

* * *

On the third floor, tucked in a small, back corner of the house, with its half sloping roof and small window, Lena found herself in a cozy room that acted as an office for someone. The couch was made up for her, her suitcase sat on the floor in the corner, and on the desk sat a few presents she’d picked up when Kara dragged her all over town showing her sights and letting her shop.

The entire visit had been spectacular, and for the first time during it, Lena let herself snuggle into the worn quilt and stare out the window at the rest of the neighborhood and wonder if this was something she could have or do in the future. It shouldn’t have been a crazy notion, but something about the holidays always made her a little forlorn and even torn. She longed for a family she never had, and wanted one she didn’t know how to.

The sounds of the house settled until it was fairly quiet. A car passed in the slush outside while the radiator warmed up and the fire crackled downstairs. The little space heater glowed bright red, making the room feel like the inside of a sauna. But Lena adored it.

But it was so quiet, that Lena heard the gentle steps from across the attic, when from Kara’s room a body crept. A small tap echoed hollowly in the Christmas Eve night.

“Hey,” Kara whispered, slowly opening the door. “I can’t sleep.”

“I thought your family was joking about how excited you get for Christmas.”

In the dim light, Kara smiled shoved her hands in the pockets of her festive holiday pyjamas. Lena sat up slightly on the couch.

“I just wanted to check on you. See how you were doing. It’s been a crazy visit, and I know this isn’t your cup of tea usually.”

“This has been the best.”

“Yeah?”

“Truly,” Lena promised.

Kara slid onto the couch when Lena tugged her knees up to her chest.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come visit you at night sooner. I didn’t want to impose, or make it weird.”

“And you’re afraid of Eliza,” Lena grinned.

“But its Christmas Eve, and I kind of wanted to spend it with you. Maybe stay up and watch a movie.”

“Another Christmas one?”

It was almost a groan that Lena let out, though Kara looked too cute nodding eagerly as she pulled that black phone out of her pocket.

“Someone’s got to corrupt you with all of the muggle stories,” Kara settled against the couch.

Somewhere between propping the phone on the little table and putting her arm on back the couch, Kara felt Lena snuggle into her side and share her blanket. Still new and not quite sure how to have a girlfriend, she felt her body buzz with this warmth and electricity just below the surface of her skin at the contact.

“Thank you for not letting me stay at school,” Lena muttered about halfway through the film. She had her arm wrapped around Kara’s ribs and she heard her heart beating in her chest.

When Kara looked down at the girl who was keeping her grounded, she was met with Lena’s eyes, and even in the dim light of the space heater and the movie, she was distracted by them. So she kissed Lena. Soft and sleepy and cozy, she kissed her and smiled halfway through because she couldn’t contain how happy she felt.

“Thank you,” Kara mumbled, unsure what to say after a kiss like that.

Lena blushed and resumed her spot.

A few seconds later, Kara found herself unable to concentrate on the movie, and she watched fat flakes begin to fall finally outside. She hugged Lena a little more and settled into the couch.

“Happy Christmas, Lena.”

“Happy Christmas.”


	3. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know if it will be spoilery since the story hasn’t advanced that far but Kara experiencing her first Christmas on earth with lena in the au where she lands on earth as an adult.

It wasn’t until there were lights on trees and wreaths on street lights that the month was noted. By then, of course, there were santas on street corners with their bells, a light snow that was a dusting of a promise of more to come, and the music piped over store speakers were songs of a distinctively merry variety.

And all of it nearly went unnoticed, though not intentionally this time, by a CEO who found herself juggling an illicit alien-aiding crime while simultaneously lying to her brother. There weren’t enough hours in the day to fit in an entire Earth-shaped education while running a multi-billion dollar corporation and getting weird butterflies in her gut when an alien smiled at her in that stupid little way that made Lena’s thighs–

None of that mattered. Instead, she finished sending off a work email as she made her way down the sidewalk, listening to Kara describe her day of earthly adventures, unaware of everything.

“Lena?” Kara asked as she zipped up her jacket a little tighter against the chill in the air. “What’s Christmas? What are the holidays?”

“Oh damn,” the CEO sighed. “Is it that time of year already?”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Sure enough, when Lena looked up from her phone, she suddenly saw aforementioned signs of the impending celebrations and festivities. Her eyes narrowed in on a window display with a large tree and a mannequin family putting a tree on the top, all joyful because of their new, expensive pyjamas.

“Throughout the vast religions of Earth, there are certain special holidays. One of the most prevalent is Christmas and during this season there are a few holidays, so it’s kind of rolled into one.”

“But what do you do?”

“Oh, well,” Lena furrowed and tried to think about how she normally spent the holidays in a gin-soaked puddle of self-doubt and loathing on a foreign beach, avoiding her family. “Families get together and spend time doing certain things.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Like decorating a tree, which is, ironically, a pagan tradition, and then going to church, eating a big meal, putting out cookies for Santa, opening presents, things like that.”

“Wow, those all sound spectacular!”

“They could be, I guess.”

“You don’t do some of those?”

Almost worried about it, Kara paused and waited for Lena to look at her. When she did, she furrowed a little more as Lena debated it. From what she could see, the world became a little more magical with all of the lights and decorations and happy songs that everyone seemed to agree on. Lena seemed to be the only one that didn’t care about all of it.

“I don’t celebrate,” she simply shrugged, indifferent to the whole thing.

“Why not?”

“You usually have to have a family to do all of that stuff.”

“And you don’t.”

“Exactly.”

They resumed their walk, though at a slightly distracted speed. Kara dug her hands deep into the pocket of her jacket while Lena adjusted her purse and crossed her arms, completely enamoured with avoiding thinking about her family and the lack of joy she felt toward the time of year.

All of the storefronts were glowing and showed familiar scenes of holiday events– trees in need of decoration, parties at offices, family dinners, snowball fights, and the such. Each one was a diorama of absence for the CEO.

“Could we do Christmas this year?” Kara finally asked as they stood on a corner and waited for the light to change and allow them to pass.

Ears hidden beneath an adorable toque that Lena picked out herself, and definitely for the reason of keeping Kara warm and not because she was becoming her own personal dress up doll in all the clothes she fantasized about taking off, Kara burrowed into the scarf to protect her ears and exposed skin.

The lights from the street, from the traffic light, from the stores, all of it concentrated on Kara’s face, and she practically glowed with excitement despite the layer of begging that made Lena absolutely angry at herself for being so damn gay.

“You want to celebrate the holidays with me?”

“Well, yeah. You’re one of my favorite people on the planet. I want to do it all with you.”

She melted. Lena Luthor melted like a chocolate bar on an August day left in the back of an all-black interior car in a parking lot with no shade.

“I want to come back to your statement about being ‘one of’ the favorite people. Considering you don’t know anyone else,” Lena began quickly. “But I do think it is possible. If you’re really serious about it.”

“It’d be a nice, healthy item to check off of my bucket list.”

“That’s true.”

“If you are uncomfortable, I understand, but we can do whatever you want.”

“No, no,” Lena shook her head. “You’re right. This will be good. We’ll do all of the things one sees on a Hallmark movie.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Right. I suspect we should start there then.”

Without even realizing it, Kara unleashed an absolute powerhouse in the Christmas celebration department. She didn’t know that simply asking for Lena to show her a few things, she was actually setting forth a perfectionist who was so absolutely desperate for a holiday, that she would take one and never let go.

“I’m very happy you’ve agreed,” Kara beamed as she put her arm over Lena’s shoulder, hugging her to her side in her joy.

“Me too,” Lena mumbled, turning her head slightly to smell the intently Kara smell that existed despite the layers.

* * *

Every day for a week, the evening after work and dinner, Christmas movies were absorbed and regarded with intense study. Kara liked the lights and the singing, and naturally came with a lot of questions about many tangential earthly affairs. And Lena answered them as best she could, though she did distract herself taking notes until she compiled a perfect list of things to do for the season.

And now her apartment was a collection of boxes and decorations that were in need of putting things up.

“We didn’t have to get the biggest tree in the lot,” Lena sighed as she took a step back and looked up at the giant evergreen.

“Oh, but look at it. It’s so beautiful.”

The alien floated near the top of the tree, adjusting a pristine, glowing star. Without her abilities, it would have been impossible. That, and the fact that Kara seemed to have a sort of natural predilection toward the holiday spirit that Lena never really experienced. Maybe it was all of the movies, but she honestly believed that it was her natural state.

A carefully crafted playlist hummed throughout the place as the last of the large selection of assorted ornaments were added. Lights were hung from the doorways, and wreaths made it to the doors while a few outdoor decorations were set up on the balcony. Stockings remained hung on the fireplace, while the cat made himself fit in a discarded box.

“Do you think we got too much stuff?” Lena worried.

“No way. I think it looks fantastic in here. But I’m not really an expert.”

“I think you’re pretty close to an expert.”

“I have a list.”

“A list?”

Satisfied with her work, Kara floated down to the floor and tugged a piece of paper out of her pocket. There was something absolutely adorable about the giant Christmas sweater the alien decided to wear. Lena was finding that shopping for her was much easier than shopping for herself. She was certainly more eager than she imagined.

“The tree and the lights, and then cocoa and dinner and presents.”

“Wow! You do have a list. Very similar to my list.”

“I’m liking these holidays. A celebration of kindness and joy and giving. This is so great. I’m glad we’re doing all of this.”

“Me too.”

It took them a while to clean up the rest of the empty boxes that came from the things they all bought. But they managed, and they turned off all of the lights except for the decorations. The place glowed in a different way than ever before. It twinkled and glittered and smelled like the best parts of a forest. While the fire roared in the fireplace, Kara laid down beneath the tree and stared up at all of the lights.

Lena laid beside her on the tree skirt they agonized over for much too long at the store.

“I’m going shopping tomorrow, to find you some presents,” Kara decided, turning her head to look at the CEO daydreaming, her face multi-colors.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to. I need to give you something nice. Full discretion though, I will be using the card you gave me for emergencies.”

Lena chuckled to herself and sighed as she closed her eyes. It was perfect. She was living a perfect moment, and she wasn’t sure what came next.

“You really don’t have to get me anything. I have everything I could ever want.”

“There are going to be lots of presents under this tree. Lots of them.”

“Okay. Then I’ll get you a few.”

“Just a few?”

“Wouldn’t want to spoil you.”

Kara laughed, melodically and light. It was unencumbered by pain, despite being composed completely of it. Lena admired that about her probably most of all.

“You’re already spoiling me, Lena.”

“Good.”

* * *

There were presents, now. The tree brimmed with boxes and bags and different shapes, all wrapped in festive paper spilling beneath it.

The entire apartment remained full of good cheer and mirth. The pair found themselves working through Christmas movies almost every night, often with Lena not that interested as she finished up work, but inevitably failing to keep disinterested, and gradually snuggling beside Kara about halfway through.

There’d been other things as well. They got dressed up and went to the ballet to see the Nutcracker performed. They donned gay apparel and went to a party at Lena’s office. They went ice skating in the park. They drank cocoa like it would never exist after Christmas was finished. They baked Christmas cookies. They built a snowman. They donated to every street corner they could. It was a joyous kind of exhausting.

“I’m so excited,” Kara bounced in her chair as she surveyed the living room and the presents.

“You have x-ray vision and you haven’t looked at the presents?” Lena teased as she licked some batter from her finger and handed over the spatula.

“That wouldn’t be in the Christmas spirit, and I quite like the Christmas spirit.”

“Spirit or not,” the CEO huffed as she lifted the bowl and poured it into the tray. “I’m not baking anymore sweets. You have the metabolism of a greyhound, but I do not.”

“But you bake so well.”

“And I have a sweet tooth, which is not helped by you.”

“If we’re going to have a dinner tomorrow, we have to have something festive for dessert. It’s in all of the movies, Lena.”

“I’ve created a monster.”

Kara didn’t notice, or at least pretended not to as she happily licked the spatula and Lena wiped flour on her forehead again. Kara liked that part. She loved how carefree and un-put-together the normally immaculate woman could look when she stopped caring.

“I was doing research and I discovered a tradition,” Kara smiled.

“Another one? It’s Christmas Eve. I’m sure we’ve done them all by now.”

“In a country made of ice, they give books to each other and spend the evening reading to pass the time. It’s the first gift of the season.”

“And you got me a book?”

“I did,” Kara nodded. “Did you get me one?”

“I did.”

“Great minds are identical.”

“Yes,” Lena smiled as she slipped the cake into the oven and started washing. “But I’m too tired to read.”

“Can we still open a present?”

“Ah, so that was the root of it.” Kara just smiled and nodded, clearly found out and not at all deterred by it. “Go get mine and I’ll get yours.”

The dishes were shoved in the dishwasher, the ham was thawing for the following day, and Kara sprinted at superspeed until she was sitting on the couch with a gift in her lap, impatiently waiting. It happened in under a second, and yet she was too eager to realize that Lena was mortal and did not possess any powers at all.

“Are we going to have to do this every year?” Lena asked before she caught herself thinking about the future.

“Definitely,” Kara agreed with no hesitation.

Lena smiled to herself and accepted the gift and handed over her own. They opened them and smiled at each other, though neither recognized the book the other had picked.

“I’m excited to read this. Thank you,” Lena offered sweetly.

“I thought this was a movie?” Kara furrowed as she scanned her title.

“It was a book first.”

Gently, reverently even, Kara trailed her fingertips along the title of A Christmas Carol, and she looked back at Lena and nodded, as if it were the most important thing she’d ever done. It was this solemnity that made Lena happiest.

“I’m going to read it all tonight. Thank you for this tradition.”

“Thanks for all of the traditions,” Lena shrugged. “Why don’t you read some of it out loud. That’ll be a fresh spin on it.”

“Since you’re too tired to read,” she nodded, quickly opening the book.

Somewhere between the tenth page and the end, Lena drifted off to sleep with her cheek on Kara’s arm and her body pressed up against her’s. It was a compromising position, and she didn’t even notice. But Kara finished and felt Lena and didn’t want to move. Instead, she looked at the cute, exhausted girl and smiled as she pulled a blanket from the back of the couch and wrapped it around them both.

The fire died down and the cat stretched before readjusting, but Kara settled deeper into the couch until Lena grabbed her ribs and held onto her at a terrible angle. She didn’t move though. Just let her.

* * *

She wasn’t in her bed. Lena knew that before she opened her eyes, but still, she dug her nose into her pillow and growled a slight complaint about waking at all. The only difference this time, was that her pillow growled back and complained about her movements by adjusting beneath her.

Lena’s eyes shot open as she felt an arm squeeze tighter around her shoulders.

Half laying atop and half smothering the alien beneath her, Lena realized she fell asleep on Kara and then used her like a teddy bear. In what looked like an uncomfortable position, Kara swallowed her fate, her head tilted off to the side as she sat sideways.

“Merry Christmas,” Kara grumbled, not interested in getting up.

Only when she saw that she was staring at someone who was wake did Lena swallow and sit up, pushing away from Kara’s warm and safe arms. She wiped the drool from her chin and cleared her throat as she blinked and got her bearings.

“I’m sorry,” Lena started. “I fell asleep. You could have woken me up–”

“I fell asleep too,” Kara tried against a giant yawn. “And you were very tired.”

With a small smile, Lena cleared her throat and adjusted herself as best as possible. She pushed the blanket away and realized she really must have been tired, to pull it down onto herself and to burrow into Kara with no memory of it at all.

“Because it’s Christmas morning, does that mean we can open presents?”

Oblivious to the horror and embarrassment the CEO was facing, the alien smiled happily, eager to start her day. She had avoided thinking about it at all, and Lena envied it.

“Aren’t you hungry?” she teased.

“But presents.”

“I’ve given you so many presents.”

“But these are wrapped and they’re a surprise. You’ve given me boring things. Like clothes.”

“And what if those are clothes?” Lena teased as she re-tied her ponytail.

“At least I get to unwrap them.”

Her excitement was infectious and even though Lena was still groggy and still mortally embarrassed, she sighed and smiled and nodded. Even though she still needed coffee, even though her neck was tight and sore, even though everything wasn’t perfect and she didn’t know how to holiday, she followed Kara to the tree where they sat, cross legged and ready.

The gifts themselves were vast in their categories. Lena received lovely smelling perfume, much different than the one she owned, but somehow better. She got vinyl records and a new coffee mug and a very expensive watch that she instantly loved. There were weird odds and ends, but Lena was surprised by how thoughtful each gift was, and she could imagine Kara agonizing in the store about what things earthlings might need.

The gifts that Lena picked for Kara weren’t much more cohesive, but she wanted to give her anything that would make her feel more at home. There was a telescope and nice notebooks, video games, a camera, another sweater, and of course chocolate.

Somehow surrounded by a mountain of discarded wrapping paper, each sat with their gifts circling them and lingering in their laps. Still wearing the new toque that Lena got her, Kara smiled at the moment.

“This was, by far, the best first Christmas in the history of Christmases,” Kara ventured.

“I’m glad.”

“What about for you? How was it?”

“It was exceptionally perfect,” Lena promised.

“Do you think we can do it again next year?”

“For however long you’d like.”

Kara smiled to herself and nodded.


	4. Rosie

The house on the corner was covered in a tasteful selection of Christmas lights that glowed against the few inches of snow that fell over the past week. From the street, it looked like a home that anyone would be proud to won, one that complimented the rest of the festive street.

Of course, the inside was nothing of the sort, though not on purpose.

“We should have just paid the movers to put it all together,” Lena sighed.

“I can handle this,” Kara disagreed, grunting as she tried to fit some pieces together for the crib.

The entirety of their lives remained in boxes with some of it spilled on the floor or tossed around as they generally grew sick of not finding what they were looking for and instead opted to dig and grow more angry. But they had jobs and lives and an alarming amount of holiday engagements which kept them out of the house and from doing anything too meaningful in the way of settling.

“Do you think it’s a bad sign that she’s sick?”

“She’s had a long few months. It’s not a bad sign, and we’re not bad moms,” Supergirl promised her wife, softening slightly, her shoulders slumping with the worry Lena felt. “Kids get sick.”

“But she’s so tiny,” Lena shook her head.

Clad in Kara’s old college sweatshirt, Lena held the cranky baby against her chest and rubbed her back. Tiny little coughs came from time to time, and their daughter looked miserable. Gone was the little glint in her eyes, gone was the ease of a smile. Instead, she bore the discomfort and sickness nobly.

Kara sat back on the floor, a dozen pieces that didn’t really look useful or like they made up a crib waited to be assembled. She watched Lena shift from side to side and coo to the baby.

“Why don’t you two go take a bath, and you can get her some more meds before bed?”

“If she’ll sleep,” she fret. “The bath helped last time. A little.”

“It helped.”

“Okay. I’m going to try that. Don’t worry about this. She won’t sleep unless I’m holding her anyway.”

Kara smiled and nodded, though she continued to work on her project because sooner or later, Rosie would feel better and need her own crib. And simply that Lena was too worried about the task at hand to realize that soon, she’d be frantic because Kara hadn’t finished. Lena offered her a look finally after snuggling the baby a little more.

“What?” Lena asked, suddenly self-conscious.

“You’re my absolute favorite person in the universe and you’re the best mom.”

“I don’t know about either of those. We’re going to have Christmas, our daughter’s first Christmas, without a tree and with our house still in boxes.”

“None of that negates my opinions,” Kara assured her, earning a roll of her eyes.

She didn’t care. It made her wife stop worrying for about thirty seconds, and that was important enough work. Lena moved through the yard of crib pieces and let her wife hug her hip. She leaned over and kissed her forehead.

“I love you.”

“Go have a bath. I want my girls in their Christmas jammies as soon as possible.”

On cue, the baby coughed and cried, whimpering slightly. Lena was back to being too worried, and Kara nodded to herself, ready to finish her mission. A few minutes later, light Christmas music could be heard just above the sound of water filling the bath. Lena sang along and Kara smiled as she fit a piece into another. Her mind though, was infinitely distracted with plans.

* * *

Fresh from the bath and slightly relieved of her cough, the naked baby wiggled and squirmed on the bed with the mismatched sheets. Clad in her duck towel, she gurgled and accepted the gentle hands that rubbed lotion on her chest. She coughed a little and kicked her feet, but nothing deterred the smiling, doting mother that hovered over her.

“Oh baby, your nose is so stuffy. We’ll get you feeling better soon,” Lena promised. “And we’ll have much better holidays. Holidays so good you’ll never want them to end.”

Rosie fussed but accepted the red and green striped pyjamas. She whined and yawned and did not like the medicine that was syringed into her mouth.

As soon as she was finished, Lena slipped on her own set of red and green pyjamas.

Halfway through some Christmas movie, the baby was asleep and Lena dozed on the bed, her laptop occupying her wife’s spot.

Kara paused at the door and surveyed those in the bed. With a slight wheeze, the baby snored, congested and sleeping off her sickness. Half asleep, Lena rubbed her back and yawned.

“Come to bed already. It’s Christmas Eve,” Lena complained.

“I finished the crib.”

“That’s my girl,” she smiled and slid deeper into the bed.

“I’m going to put Rosie in there. She deserves a quiet night.”

“She’s fine here.”

“She’s not,” Kara disagreed, and picked up the sleeping infant.

The baby slept through it, and Kara placed in her in the freshly constructed crib. By the time she turned off the light and left on the night light, she returned to her room and found her wife asleep in the middle of the bed.

Tired as she was, Kara stole the baby monitor, closed the laptop, and closed the bedroom door for she still had work to do.

* * *

With a sick baby, a move, and the normal requirements of being Lena Luthor, it’d been a little while since she last had a solid night’s sleep. It seemed oddly fitting that Christmas Eve would be the one that finally fulfilled that need.

Lena stretched in the bed until she met a sleeping hero beside her, and she wrapped herself around strong shoulders, and she kissed through flannel pyjama top, finding warmth radiating there. She slid her hand under Kara’s shirt and held her ribs, held her breath, held her skin and woke up with a smile on her lips.

“Merry Christmas,” Lena yawned as she felt her wife stir.

And when Kara turned over, Lena kissed her throat and hid in her chest as strong arms encircled her.

“Merry Christmas,” Kara mumbled, exhausted after only a few hours of sleep.

“She made it through the night without a fuss. Maybe she’s feeling better.”

“I told you.”

“You did,” she agreed, burrowing deeper.

But, attuned as she was to her daughter, Lena should have known that her waking would mean that Rosie would cosmically sense it and be up within a few minutes. A baby sniffle and shuffle and wiggling could be heard on the monitor, earning a growl of complaint from the retired superhero.

“Sleep a little more,” Lena tried extracting herself. “I’ll go change her and start breakfast.”

“Mmm, okay.”

Kara was exceptionally pliant when nails raked up and down her back, just beneath her top, trailing along the skin there.

“We don’t have a regular Christmas, but we can still have a good Christmas morning breakfast.”

“Waffles. And eggs. And bacon. And french toast. And toast toast. And pineapple. And hash browns. And sausage.”

“Is that all?”

Lena managed to escape the bed just in time to see Kara furrow as she debated before relaxing into Lena’s now empty pillow.

“Yup.”

“Coming right up,” she promised with a smile, kissing her wife’s temple and smoothing it back.

Before she was at the door, she knew Kara wa already back to sleep. Lena watched her, how she looked so peaceful in the sheets, and how she had this serenity on her face. Sometimes, she couldn’t understand how she loved someone so much. It seemed impossible to have those feelings for someone.

Humming a quiet little song, Lena made her way into the nursery and found it nearly unpacked and set up much the way she’d planned. It made sense why Kara was still in bed on her favorite morning of the year.

Smiling beneath her star and moon mobile, Rosie kicked her feet and gurgled, getting a little more excited when her mom appeared.

“Merry Christmas,” Lena cooed, leaning on the edge of the crib and running her hand along cheek. “You sound better. No fever.”

Rosie wiggled at the news.

They had a routine already. Lena changed her and made her way downstairs, eager to grab the presents she’d hidden in a box labeled ‘Clothes,’ and give the baby breakfast. She’d brew the coffee and hope her love would wake up shortly.

Lena made it halfway down the stairs before her song trailed off and she saw the Christmas tree in the living room. There were still boxes stacked everywhere, and the walls were bare, but a Christmas tree brimmed with ornaments and lights, taking up much of the space.

Already, there were presents under it. The stockings were tacked up somewhat haphazardly on the fireplace.

“I love your mom so much,” Lena sighed.

* * *

“I don’t want to spoil her. Everyone else is going to spoil her.”

“Well, she’s eight months old, so I don’t think we have to worry about that just yet.”

Lena nodded, really considering it as she looked at the baby in the bouncy chair who was happy to suck on her pacifier in peace, no other need in the world.

The remnants of the Christmas morning scattered out in all directions. They didn’t get each other many gifts because they really didn’t need anything. But it was easy to see that the potential for their kid to become infinitely spoiled was at an all time high.

Wrapped in the scarf Lena found and thought that her wife absolutely needed, Kara smiled and toyed with the new camera she’d gotten as well. She held it up to her eye and snapped a picture.

“I’ll spoil her. You have to make sure I don’t spoil her,” Lena nodded.

“I can do that.”

“When I want to buy her a car, you have to stop me.”

“Definitely.”

“I mean it. And only like three presents for Christmas. We’ll spend the holiday doing charity work and stuff.”

“I can do that.”

“And you’ll let me take you on a vacation next month.”

“You have a long list of things I have to do, huh?” Kara laughed.

The tree glittered and the family unit sat on the floor of their new home. Kara slid over and wrapped her arms around her wife so that she settled between her legs. She shared her new scarf and kept her cozy and close, kissed her shoulder, felt her laugh through her spine.

“Merry Christmas.”

“Let’s have a few more in this place, but with furniture,” Lena decided.

“Yes, dear.”


	5. Sometimes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just because of personal difficulties I would LOVE to see something like this: Lena has been distant with Kara because of a mental health relapse, Christmas is the worst time because with no family it’s super easy to become isolated, but Kara refuses to let her sometimes-girlfriend spend the yuletide alone and so an extra seat is made at the family table

Like every other building in the skyline, the LCorp headquarters was lit up for the impending holidays. Green and red at the top, it’s spires glittered higher than anyone else’s, while lights ran up and down the edges. Inside, the lobby had a fifty-some foot Christmas tree and wreaths all over the place. The lights were all over the place, and the entire building was full of bits and pieces of the season. It was a marvel, warm and welcoming against the dirty slush and gritty layer the salt provided to the icy city outside.

The office at the top of the building, however, was conspicuously absent of any kind of decoration. In fact, it was absent of almost anything at all save for the desk and the stock furniture.

But painfully aware of the approaching holiday, a black kind of heaviness sat on the CEO’s chest. It wasn’t as malicious as black might weigh. She’d been through that before, and it wasn’t there yet. Lena decided a thick, heavy grey sat on her chest. Like a thick wool sweater that was a few sizes too small, it gripped her collar bones and laced its fingers with her ribs, burrowing deep into her chest cavity and filling in ever empty spot.

So she sat at her desk and she tried to breathe as best she could and scrolled through more emails. The thickness accumulated the deeper into the holiday season they spun. Every time she left her office, Lena saw decorations and families, heard the laughter and the joy, and she felt intense loss and envy and desire. So intense was it, that she was convinced she wouldn’t be able to breathe by Christmas Eve.

Instead, she flipped through files and worked. That was safe. If she logged enough hours, she didn’t have to keep her eyes open on the rides home and see the families skating downtown in front of the giant tree, and she wouldn’t have to smell the pine of the lobby of her building with its fresh wreaths. If she stayed busy, she didn’t have to feel lonely, and she could tugg off that feeling of grey that hugged her tighter and tighter with every passing hour. And for just a little, there was some relief. Not enough, but some.

_Hey, I’m finishing up early. Care to go grab a drink? The Jingle Bar pop-up is doing ugly sweater decorating and I think you’d look cute in one._

Lena tapped her phone against her lips after reading the message from Kara.

The offer was kind and warm and genuine; everything Kara Danvers was herself, so very naturally. Lena read it again and felt the heaviness settle on her chest, unable to overcome the tiny feeling of lacking.

There was no reason for her to leave her office because of a text message. That would be silly and no one would know if she never responded. But somehow, sitting in the same room that she read it in felt like it knew, and she couldn’t avoid answering the question if she was in her office not doing anything and daydreaming about Kara. So she had to leave; it was as simple as that.

Somewhere between shoving her files in her bag and logging off her computer, her phone chimed again.

_If that’s too much holiday spirit for you, there’s always Bow and Barn on 6th street._

Lena smiled at the words, imagining a reporter pacing a few steps as she typed and retyped, hoping to come off as easy going and not too eager. And that was the exact reason Lena didn’t have it in her to be wrecked by Kara Danvers. She was thoughtful and cared and was far from not too eager; she was far from easy going about things she cared about enough.

“Heading out, Ms. Luthor?” her secretary asked as she entered the office again with another stack of papers.

Caught smiling fondly at her phone, Lena resituated her face and shoved the offensive item into her bag.

“Hm? Yes. I, um, I think it’s late.”

“It is,” Jess nodded, pausing in front of the large desk. “But you’ve been putting in late hours. The new year has a lot of initiatives.”

“Yes. Those,” Lena nodded and swallowed before furrowing. “Could you call the car?”

“Of course.”

Handing over the files, Jess looked at her boss and ached to do something. She wasn’t sure what, but she knew something was needed. While it was true that Lena Luthor wasn’t exactly cracking jokes every few minutes, the new level of detachedness and disinterest in anything beside work was worrisome. An addiction to her career was inevitable in her position, but Jess saw some form of retreat in the past few weeks.

“I’ve gotten a few calls from Ms. Danvers today, asking about your–”

“I’m too busy for whatever she wants to try.”

Jess frowned. She was almost overjoyed when she’d walked in on a certain blonde reporter pressing her boss shamefully up against the very desk that separated them currently. She was convinced that Lena was on track for more happiness and more ease, more peace, more forgiveness, more stability, more progress. Recently, however, she’d only been instructed to lie, to make her boss unaccessible.

“She said,” Jess read from a note she pulled from her pocket. “If drinks tonight don’t work, that perhaps you could get lunch tomorrow. I can clear your meetings if ou–”

“No, thank you, Jess,” Lena smiled the smallest and quickest. “I have meetings. We’ll finish the year strong. No cancelling.”

Jess nodded in agreement and felt her body deflate slightly as Lena pulled on her coat and buttoned it tightly to the neck.

“Is there anything else I can do for you tonight?”

“No, I think we had a good day.”

Lena smiled softly, thoughtfully, deep in another place in her own head but still putting on the front that she was expected to have despite that thick, heavy muffling, suffocating grey wool that multiplied beneath her coat and over her chest. She shouldered her bag and made her way toward the elevator.

“Have a good night, Ms. Luthor.”

“See you tomorrow, Jess. Get home safe.”

With that, Lena got into her private elevator and leaned back against the railing as soon as the doors shut, as if she’d been knocked over or punched in the chest. They adjustment to being alone and not having to hold herself up was a lot for her bones.

She righted herself and caught her breath as soon as she walked through the lobby.

_If you want, I could just come over and we could have a drink and watch a movie. I miss you._

Lena locked her phone again after reading Kara’s newest message before slipping into the waiting car. She didn’t really have the energy to respond, and she didn’t know what to say if she did, so all she could do was put her forehead against the window of the car and close her eyes to pretend she didn’t exist anymore.

* * *

There were traditions. From the first year she’d been on the planet, the things that kept Kara Danvers grounded were rhythms and traditions. She needed to know what to expect when it came to earthly customs, and she happened to fall grossly in love with a nearly month-long celebration with cookies and cocoa and happiness and cheer and lights, beautiful, beautiful lights and sounds and giving.

Her sister knew this. Often, she kind of dreaded how much Kara got into Christmas. It meant a lot of wholesome activities when in reality, Alex was more of a merlot and shooting range type of girl.

But she humored her because, even though she had her own indifference toward the holiday, she also liked the ritual. Alex played her part in it all, even when she had someone texting her very explicit things throughout a very pure Christmas movie. The same kinds of things that made it impossible to focus on Christmas trope and instead required Alex’s full attention to not think about doing what those messages said.

After firing off another warning to Maggie to stay up and wait for her, Alex looked over at her sister, prepared for the warning look for interrupting with texting. Instead, she just saw Kara staring at her phone and then back again at her own hot cocoa.

“This is your favorite movie, and you look like your cocoa is more interesting,” Alex teased. “Are you bored of watching this again for the thousandth time?”

Kara didn’t look up. She just sighed and tapped her phone’s screen to find nothing at all waiting for her on it, which led to a heavier sigh.

“Hey, earth to Kara,” she reached over and nudged Kara’s knee with her foot.

“Hm? Sorry, what?”

“Wow, your head is not in this tonight.”

“No, no I am,” Kara nodded, furrowing as she turned back to the tv. “I’m excited. I love this movie.”

“You’re a million miles away. Trouble in paradise?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Alex felt her phone vibrate but ignored it on the arm of the couch. Instead she adjusted to face her sister who pretended not to notice and suddenly find the film interesting above all else.

It was no secret how much Kara felt for Lena Luthor. It was something Alex had to get around in her own head, but for the most part, she only held a protective disinterest in times when Lena was actually spending time with Kara. It escalated to full on dislike when she disappeared or strung her along or turned her into someone who pined. Alex didn’t appreciate how lovelorn her sister became because of someone else, regardless of their last name. That part just didn’t help much.

“Lena won’t text you back again?”

“Don’t.”

“Kara, you have to stop playing this cat-and-mouse game with her. Just tell her what you want and how you feel so you can be done with–”

“I’m not like you! I can’t just– I won’t– What if it doesn’t– What if it doesn’t work? What if I lose her? I just can’t risk it,” Kara shook her head, clenching her jaw.

“You like her so much, and she treats you like–”

“Don’t!”

“Someone has to say it.”

“She’s… she’s…”

“Another excuse.”

Kara grit her teeth and set her mug down, sloshing chocolate onto the table in her haste and feelings. She stood in the living room in her ridiculous snowman sweater and put her hands on her hips like Supergirl was about to come out.

“Lena Luthor is full of tiny little boxes. She’s dug deep into herself, and she’s filled these little boxes full of feelings and hopes and wishes and desire, and she tossed them down the deep, deep hole, and she’s poured concrete on top of it and hired a dragon to guard it so no one will approach. We’re not like you and Maggie. We’re not… anything.”

On the couch, Alex looked at her sister’s shoulders grow tight as she ranted and then release when she realized what she’d said. It dawned on her and that did nothing but deflate her completely.

“And right now, she’s hiding and afraid, and yeah, I like to kiss her a lot. And yeah, I want to slay that dragon and pound that hole until I free the boxes–” Alex suppressed a laugh and nodded as Kara continued her realization. “But she doesn’t know how to have that.”

Alex sipped her wine and let out a heavy breath with the terrible train of thoughts. She drank the rest of her wine and felt slightly woozy.

“You can’t save everyone, Kara. And all she’s doing is breaking your heart.”

“But not for the reasons you’re thinking,” Kara smiled slightly and shook her head. “I have to go.”

“But your movie…”

“We’ll watch it another time. I’m sorry, Alex.”

“No, whatever, go pound holes or dragons or whatever metaphor you got lost in,” she offered, picking up her phone to quickly tell her girlfriend she was on her way. “But be–” A swoosh of wind moved through the wind and Kara was gone. “Careful.”

* * *

The knock at the door startled Lena. Knee deep into a book she really wasn’t interested in finishing but needed to read to pass the time, she jumped slightly at the harsh knocking over the mellow, melancholic music she’d selected for herself. Cozy under a blanket and well into an expensive bottle of wine, she’d expected a quiet evening. 

“Kara? What are you–” 

“It’s Christmas Eve,” Kara smiled. The Kryptonian paused only to adjust the tree she had slung over her shoulder as if it were nothing. 

“Yes… it is,” Lena furrowed, not understanding. “But why are you at my place?” 

“Because I had an epiphany. Can I come in?” 

“Oh, yeah, um, sure.” 

While Lena hesitated, Kara didn’t even pause. The question was out of her mouth and she was already on her way into the penthouse. She was familiar with it after spending the occasional evening inside it. Sometimes, there was kissing involved when she was there. Kara liked that part of the Lena’s place a lot. Gently, she put the tree on the ground, holding it up beside her with a smile, as if she’d just caught a giant fish or something. 

“I’m here because it’s Christmas, and I want to see you. Figured you might need one of these.” 

“Kara, you know how I feel about the holidays.” 

“I do,” she nodded, not wavering. “But how do you feel about me?” 

“I feel… Um. I feel okay about you?” Lena furrowed again, unable to fully follow what was happening. 

“I came to give you some options.” 

“We don’t have to do this. I don’t want to be a bother, or disrupt your holidays. I just don’t feel that festive.” 

Kara watched as Lena crossed her arms, guarding herself against something. She waited for her to realize how ridiculous she was being. 

“My family is having dinner tomorrow, and I want you to come.” 

“I don’t do families.” 

“We sometimes kiss!” The words came out in a rush, much louder than she’d meant them to, but still, Kara blushed through them. “We kiss and do more sometimes. With each other. I like you and I want to spend the holidays with you. So stop making this so difficult.”

“It’s complicated.” 

“It’s not.” 

“It is.” 

“I want to watch a Christmas movie with you, and open presents in the morning after a big breakfast. I want that, and I think you want it, you just don’t know how to have it.” It was perhaps more honest than Lena was used to hearing, but she stared at Kara as if she’d been slapped. 

The news surprised her, but still, she held her breath and wondered how Kara got so smart and insightful about her being. 

“I don’t know how to get used to it,” Lena corrected. “Because if I do, and you leave, that would just– I would–” 

“I’ll stay then,” Kara smiled, offering the easiest solution to the problem. Lena snorted, but Kara took another step forward and paused for a second before hugging her tightly. It took a second, but the CEO relaxed and inhaled deeply. 

“You can’t just say things like that,” Lena scolded, her nose and mouth buried in Kara’s shoulder. 

“Too late.”

* * *

The morning was quiet. Not a creature stirred, not a second passed without quiet and peace. That was, until, cold feet worked their way under her legs. Too cold, Kara complained with a growl and shifted, though it did nothing. A few seconds after her move, she felt Lena shift forward, following the heat.

“Stop moving,” Lena whispered, hugging Kara’s back and keeping her rooted.

“Stop having cold feet.”

“That’s your job.”

Despite the sass, Kara smiled to herself because Lena was groggy and ornery and cute, and she wouldn’t want to wake up any other way.

“It’s Christmas,” Kara offered, turning over in her wife’s arms.

“Shh.”

“You like it.”

“I tolerate it,” Lena squinted up her face and kept her eyes shut, as if she could possibly fall back to sleep.

For a while they were just quiet, hovering near sleep and near wakefulness, disinterested in either, and happy to have both. Kara ran her hands up Lena’s side and shifted their hips closer because it was well worth it. She smiled and kissed her wife’s lips, and her jaw, and her neck and her nose, and her forehead, and anywhere she could reach. All slow. All deliberate. The only way a kiss should ever be given.

“Can we open presents now?” Kara asked.

“Can’t we sleep more? I’m exhausted.”

“Tell me you love me and that you love Christmas.”

“This is why Santa doesn’t bring you presents.”

“Admit it.”

“I love you,” Lena sighed. “Now hush.”

It didn’t matter if she could admit she was wrong or not. Kara looked at her sleeping wife and the fact that she was wearing reindeer pyjamas, the fact that their place was covered in decorations, the fact that Lena purchased a few, the fact that she proposed on Christmas two year prior. The evidence was enough to tell Kara the truth.

“I love you too, just so you know.”

“Even when I’m cranky?” Lean ventured.

“Especially then.”

“Shut up.”

“See? That just makes my heart race.”

Kara earned a pillow flopped on her head and Lena’s laughter that followed.


End file.
